The Best Baby Detergent – My Motivation To Find It
My baby is born on July 12, 2016. She is born six days ahead of due date. My wife asked me to search for some baby detergents online, because she feels that babies should be using baby detergent for her clothes.
At first I didn’t agree with her. I felt that there’s no reason to find “baby detergents specifically, because there are a ton of people trying to sell you baby products out there (I’m one of them), but it doesn’t mean you need all that junk. Personally I feel that babies have sensitive skin, so washing her clothes with plain old tap water should be good enough.
However, on second thought, babies can dirty their clothes in many different ways.
- They might have diaper blowouts (have poop or pee leak into their clothes)
- They might burp milk all over their clothes (and it happens pretty often too)
- They might simply accidentally draw all over themselves with the nearest condiment (ketchup for example)
- They might spread their diaper poop all over themselves while you change their diaper (babies can be very active sometimes)
I realized that it would be a problem if I couldn’t get rid of the stains on her clothing. I didn’t want to buy baby products at first because I don’t want to spend hefty amount of money for products that will irritate her skin giving her rashes and burns. However, her skin is not the only concern I have now.
If my baby constantly wears clothes that has been stained, she might actually get sick from it. Food stains can actually ferment harmful germs on it. In other words, if my baby don’t get to wear clean clothing, then I would be putting her at constant risk. So then I decided to go on my search for the best baby detergent that I can find.
First Of All – Don’t Be Fooled By Products That Don’t Work
If you are running out of time and quickly want to find out what worked out for me, then skip all the way down below to read about it, or click here. If not let me elaborate on the products that don’t work so you don’t even waste more time researching and buying them.
Just like you, I googled for the best baby detergent. Honestly I was surprised by the sheer amount of products on the market just for washing your baby clothes. I can see why everybody wants to sell their stuff in this field because every parent like you and me wants to find something that’s safe and effective for our little boo, so that she doesn’t take a trip to the hospital all the time. The really wicked thing is that when the market demand for something is huge, there tends to be evil merchants that wants to take a piece of that pie.
As an end result, I found a lot of crap on the internet. At first, they will go through all their special features like:
- being super organic
- being made with no chemicals
- being made with natural stuff like coconut
- being just as effective as regular laundry detergent
- being made very safe
I was super excited by their features, until my research went deeper. I went through every natural, organic, and baby safe detergent. Maybe I didn’t go through every single “baby safe detergent” being made in the world, but I went through the more famous ones. How I usually do it is to read through almost every single review I can come across and find out the worst criticisms people give to those products.
I jot down a whole list of potential detergents and the criticisms they received. Let me show you what people said below.
The “Baby Safe” Laundry Detergents List
The Honest Company Laundry Detergent Free and Clear
I am sure you have heard of honest. Even though they might have started honest, a lot of people don’t feel that way about them anymore. Currently, this products seems to contain something called ” methylisothiazolinone”. According to Wikipedia methylisothiazolinone is defined like this:
Its use for a wide range of personal products for humans, such as cosmetics, lotions, moisturizers, sanitary wipes, shampoos, and sunscreens, more than doubled during the first decade of the twenty-first century and is proving to be a concern because of sensitization and allergic reactions as well as cell and nerve damage.
This is what one mother had to say:
To make it worst, this product only got 41 reviews:
You might be wondering why it matters whether a product gets more reviews or less reviews. The point is for it to have lots of stars and good reviews right? Wrong. More reviews actually has a better meaning. More reviews means that:
- it’s more popular
- it created a strong enough effect for people to even bother to take time and effort to review it
- it’s probably very useful and efficient
- it probably got referred from person to person
Think about it. If one person found a product good, that person will be more than happy to share that information with another person. The next person will try it out and excitedly tell the next person. Assuming one person tells ten people about it, then the information will spread exponentially creating a domino effect. Assuming that was the case, then this product should be getting at least thousands of reviews. However, the results show otherwise.
This product also didn’t score high on EWG’s website:
It only got a “C” from a scale of A to F. “A” being the best and “F” being the worst. If you didn’t know already, EWG is also known as Environmental Working Group. They actually check a lot of products for harmful chemicals, their effects on living beings like you or me, and the environment.
Babyganics 3X Baby Laundry Detergent, Fragrance Free
This detergent almost tricked me because the word babyganics really sounds like this is a detergent tailored for babies or for people with skin as sensitive as babies.
Unfortunately, this detergent contains something known as sodium borate, anhydrous. If that name sounds confusing to you, it’s simply a type of borax. You most likely have heard of borax before. According to Wikipedia, this compound might cause reproductive problems and is a possible carcinogen (in other words, it might potentially cause cancer).
Here’s what a mother had to say about babyganics detergent:
To make it worst, another parent complained that babyganics doesn’t clean:
This product has more reviews compared to Honest, but it’s still not a lot:
It scored even worst on EWG’s website:
Dropps Laundry Detergent Pacs
These are supposedly convenient pacs where you can literally just “drop” into your laundry machine without difficult measuring and pouring. This laundry detergent actually has a lot of reviews compared to the previous two. It has 400+ reviews.
It leaves behind residue if you are not careful:
You might think it’s not big deal if it leaves behind residue, but then again, why settle for laundry detergents that forces you to work harder for no reason. It also didn’t rate high on EWG:
Seventh Generation Natural Baby Laundry Detergent Free and Clear
Seventh generation used to be famous for creating awesome disposable diapers that doesn’t harm the environment. However, their diapers aren’t what they used to be, and this detergent is pretty disappointing too.
Here’s what a parent said:
Another parent complained about how it didn’t wash their clothes correctly:
It has decent amount of reviews, but it doesn’t compensate for the fact that it doesn’t work.
It’s also not rated high on EWG:
Charlie Banana Laundry Detergent – This detergent doesn’t have negative reviews, but I didn’t go for it simply because it has barely any reviews. As I mentioned earlier. If a product has barely any reviews, it goes to show that barely anybody uses it. In fact, I assume that barely anybody wants to use it.
Even if you add all their reviews together from three products, that still comes out to be 38 reviews. The reviews give full stars, so if you really want to try it out yourself, get it here, or else just skip it.
Dr. Bronner’s Fair Trade & Organic Castile Liquid Soap – This soap claims to be able to do anything and it’s vegan. You can wash your hands, and your clothes. Usually Dr Bronner’s soap is famous for having grade “A” on EWG. In other words, it is potentially environmentally safe. You might be wondering why I seem to imply that this specific liquid soap isn’t as good.
There are two reasons. First reason is because of this comment I read below.
I thought this was my chosen detergent too until I read this comment:
I don’t know about you, but that sounds scary enough for me not to try it. I still want my eyeballs to be in good shape.
Second reason is because I can’t find this specific Dr Bronner’s soap on EWG’s website. EWG’s website has a long list of Dr. Bronner’s soap, but this one is missing. To me that’s very suspicious. Maybe they didn’t rate it yet, but I wouldn’t take my chances with this one.
Another problem with Dr. Bronner’s soap is this review I read:
It seems that Dr. Bronner’s products are being watered down, so it might not be as good as they claim to be before. Well, buyer beware.
Method Laundry Detergent – This one seems to have trouble for having a strong chemical smell and not washing clothes right.
This is one comment:
This comment seems to imply that this detergent is not safe for you skin either:
Earth Friendly Products Baby Ecos Free and Clear – Ecos doesn’t seem to do a good job of washing your clothes right.
Here’s what someone said:
What I Found That Works On My Baby’s Clothes
Name: Arm and Hammer All Natural Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster and Household Cleaner
Price on Amazon: $61.23 & FREE Shipping (You are paying $61.23 because you are buying six large packs of super washing soda)
Ingredients: Sodium bicarbonate
Other Uses: You can almost clean anything with it. It is extremely tough on greases and it does not scratch. It takes literally seconds to wipe off grease from your kitchen. You think you need a metal scrub? Not necessary. Hate the black moldy stuff in your bathroom. That also takes only one wipe. Just generously apply and rub away. Makes household chores efficiently easier too.
EWG Review: A (the best rating)
Amazon Review:
You have done your research on laundry detergent. I see your motivation and appreciate the dedication. i know there are lots of laundry detergent on the market for children and it can be a daunting task to find out which one is the best. I will check out the Arm&Hammer;.
Yea check it out. Arm and Hammer only has sodium bicarbonate as the main ingredient. A lot of people already use it to clean everything in the house. I hope you like it.
Thank you for your article on baby detergent, the honest company has a great name and sounds to be what their name says honest.
All you shared about babies is very true, I never thought about how babies clothes might benefit from baby detergent because a babies lifestyle is much different then our lifestyle that is for sure.
Great article
I think this goes for washing anything in my book. I don’t have small children, but I try to watch what I use for laundry, dishes and cleaning in general. There are too many chemicals, harmful ones, in a lot of products. I feel better knowing that I am limiting this as much as possible and keeping my home a lot safer for my family.
Great article! You’ve obviously done a ton of research here, and it’s a big help for those of us with little ones! I’ve always been skeptical of these special “baby” laundry detergents. We’ve had good luck with simple detergents that are low on fragrances, but my daughter still has the occasional bout with eczema. I’ll definitely check out the Arm & Hammer. Thanks!
Lots of sub par products out there. What a great review. Some people would purchase the first listing coming up in the search results. Its nice to see the review ratings on the product. I agree with your choice with Arm and Hammer, it’s our trusted detergent. We used the detergent on our babies cloths from the start. Always did the job without allergic reactions. Now the babies are 5 and 9 years old. It’s a different kind of mess to clean but still does the job:)
Arm and Hammer is great right? It’s also very safe considering it’s only sodium bicarbonate. You can also use it to clean kitchen mess and cleaning the floor. So many options for one simple box.
I must admit I’ve never read an article on baby detergent before. Thanks! Though my baby is all grown up, I’m still very careful about what detergent I wash our clothes in as my husband is sensitive to any fragrances in soaps and detergents. I was amused with the company name Honest Company…as I’m sure they are living up to their name!
Really interesting article for new parents (and us old parents, too!) I like all the research that you’ve done on the different detergents. Expensive name brands aren’t always what they seem. My grandson has a skin reaction to a lot of different detergents, so I think I’ll give the Arm and Hammer detergent a go and see how it works out. Plus I can use it for cleaning the rest of the house!!
Very true about sensitive skin. My daughter suffers a bit from eczema and I don’t want her to suffer because I want a cheap detergent roduct. It probably wouldn’t work anyway. Your child’s health is far more important. Thank you for the great article reviewing each of these products. Arm and Hammer seems the way to go.
Knowing what deterrent to use is awesome, we don’t want our babies breaking out in rashes and other things! I want to know how to find there best and what to look for. thanks for taking the time to put this together!
even making our own detergent is even better bc you know exactly what is going in it!
Hi there, this is a really in depth look at the detergents we use for our baby’s sensitive skin. I only used pure soap when my babies were little. But I like the sound of the arm and hammer, and like its versatility as well! Tell me, does it clean the clothes well? Can you use it in a cold water wash? Does it make your whites white?
Thanks so much for providing so much information here.
Kris
I have a son ,born Jan 2015. He is almost two now and the search for a good baby laundry detergent for him was horrific! I wish I had found your site sooner because my baby has very, very sensitive skin.After reading all your research,I agree that Arm and Hammer is a good brand. I’ve never tried it before but I will definitely try it now. Great Site!